hawkdrummer1
Well-Known Member
1. John Wooden
2. Dan Gable
...big gap
3. Nick Saban
2. Dan Gable
...big gap
3. Nick Saban
Finebaum: If Saban wins he will be seen as best college coach ever, for all sports
- Thread starter uihawk82
- Start date
HaydenHawk56
Well-Known Member
No way, Brian Ferentz holds this honor. 
SmokeTownHawk
Well-Known Member
Even Bobby Bowden in football had quite the reclamation project for the Seminoles. Or Devaney @ UNL. Not to downplay what Nick has done at all. But compared to Gable alone, Finebaum's just selling clicks.
I don't know about Gable at #2 -- I wouldn't put him there simply because of the lack of competition in wrestling when he was coaching -- but Wooden was my #1 pick even before reading the thread.
pythagoras
Well-Known Member
Young didn't look Heisman worthy tongiht....oof
kicker22
Well-Known Member
I don't know but IMO no conversation about about greatest coaches in all of sports is complete if Geno Auriemma isn't included or at least considered. I'm no women's basketball fan, but 11 national championships, 8 Naismith Coach of the Year Awards, and over 1100 wins with under 200 losses (winning percentage over .850%) deserves consideration.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
Looking at womens basketball I would say Pat Summitt would be in this mix as well. She led the Vols to 8 NC's, she played a huge part in building womens college basketball.
Yeah doing what Snyder did and having prolonged success after getting them good is way more impressive to me then what guys like Saban and Dabo have done. Go turn around a program with zero hope or expectations in less than a handfull of years and get back to me.
Winning 11-12 games with top 100 talent for a roster is just what you should do. What's starter for Bama is the lowest rated recruit and what was it? GAs qb was a walk on so that's a fluky story in and of itself but that's not normal for them. They have a 5 star backing him up and had Justin Fields before he went to OSU
Fryowa
Administrator
I'm the biggest Dan Gable fan there is, but anytime college coaches get a few years of dominance like that they get to a point where they're unstoppable due to recruiting power. That's not to take anything away from coaches who build programs into powerhouses, but let's not kid ourselves, just about any somewhat competent coach would win titles if you have the pick of the litter every year.
Take Dan Gable for instance.
There are 11 D-1 head coaches right now who wrestled at Iowa, all of them under Dan Gable, all of them multiple All-Americans, most of them B1G Champs, most of them at least 1 national title, 2 of them Olympians, one an Olympic medalist.
Lenny Zalesky (Cal Baptist)
Troy Steiner (Fresno State)
Jim Heffernan (Illinois)
Tom Brands
Kevin Dresser (ISU)
Joel Sharratt (Navy)
Dog Schwab (UNI)
Tom Ryan (Ohio State)
Steve Martin (Old Dominion)
Jim Zalesky (Oregon State)
Tony Ersland (Purdue)
And that's not to count the dozens of other Iowa grads who are D-1 assistants or Team USA coaches, just even a tiny sample of the recent ones like:
Terry Brands
Bobby Telford
Mike Zadick
Bill Zadick
Dan Dennis
Brent Metcalf
Tony Ramos
Ryan Morningstar
The list goes on for days. Name one program in any sport in history who had 11 alumni as active D-1 head coaches at one time. (hint, it doesn't exist).
Now, all that said...
Was Gable the most skilled coach in the history of the sport? Unequivocally, yes. There is total consensus even among his opposition. But...we can't ignore that for multiple decades, Dan Gable had more recruiting power in his sport than Nick Saban could ever dream of. All of those guys I listed above came to Iowa because Iowa was a monolithic juggernaut in the sport of wrestling at that time. He built the program to that point, but after that it was on total autopilot. If there was a wrestler he wanted, that guy came to Iowa.
Take Dan Gable for instance.
There are 11 D-1 head coaches right now who wrestled at Iowa, all of them under Dan Gable, all of them multiple All-Americans, most of them B1G Champs, most of them at least 1 national title, 2 of them Olympians, one an Olympic medalist.
Lenny Zalesky (Cal Baptist)
Troy Steiner (Fresno State)
Jim Heffernan (Illinois)
Tom Brands
Kevin Dresser (ISU)
Joel Sharratt (Navy)
Dog Schwab (UNI)
Tom Ryan (Ohio State)
Steve Martin (Old Dominion)
Jim Zalesky (Oregon State)
Tony Ersland (Purdue)
And that's not to count the dozens of other Iowa grads who are D-1 assistants or Team USA coaches, just even a tiny sample of the recent ones like:
Terry Brands
Bobby Telford
Mike Zadick
Bill Zadick
Dan Dennis
Brent Metcalf
Tony Ramos
Ryan Morningstar
The list goes on for days. Name one program in any sport in history who had 11 alumni as active D-1 head coaches at one time. (hint, it doesn't exist).
Now, all that said...
Was Gable the most skilled coach in the history of the sport? Unequivocally, yes. There is total consensus even among his opposition. But...we can't ignore that for multiple decades, Dan Gable had more recruiting power in his sport than Nick Saban could ever dream of. All of those guys I listed above came to Iowa because Iowa was a monolithic juggernaut in the sport of wrestling at that time. He built the program to that point, but after that it was on total autopilot. If there was a wrestler he wanted, that guy came to Iowa.
Ree4
Well-Known Member
In fairness Alabama was on probation for 3 of those years for rules violations no?
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Look, I'm not going to here to talk about the past other than last night. I think Nick needs to consider retirement. It is clear the game has passed him by.
Ree4
Well-Known Member
I'm not the one who brought up "17 years without a title". Saban, retire.. lol
99topdawg
Well-Known Member
I know everyone thinks of John Wooden as a saint, but I always have a problem saying that Wooden is the greatest of all time. Way too much going on around that program. First thing would be to google Sam Gilbert. Gave money, cars, and other things to players. Of course, Wooden didn't know about it. Reminds me of Tom Osbourne.
